Editor’s note: Ward 1 covers much of the north and west sides of Des Moines. Bleeding Heartland welcomes guest posts endorsing Democratic or progressive candidates for local offices.
With the following official statement, Our Revolution Iowa has endorsed Indira Sheumaker for Des Moines City Council Ward 1, in the November 2 election:
“Indira Sheumaker actively displays the best in community organizing in her commitment to have the Des Moines City Council enact progressive policies put forth by Des Moines groups she has helped lead over the past year,” said Pete D’Alessandro, Organizing Committee Member of OR Iowa.
According to D’Alessandro, “Indira Sheumaker’s campaign principle of ‘All Power to the People’ aligns with Our Revolution Iowa’s goal to amplify the voices of Iowans who have long been ignored. Indira lives this campaign principle throughout her organizing by working from margin to center, and focusing on those most impacted by issues in order to identify a comprehensive path forward.”
As an extension of her leadership in the Des Moines Black Liberation Movement and Des Moines People’s Town Hall, Sheumaker’s candidacy for City Council is endorsed by OR Iowa.
Sheumaker, born and raised in the Des Moines Northside, advocates for a better democratic process for the City Council to hear and respond to presently ignored voices. But she is not content to wait for that to happen. Indira has taken the initiative to break barriers and create the Ward 1 People’s Council to discuss issues and solutions and bring them to the Council. Indira has proven to be an individual who is willing to speak up with conviction and solutions to improve the quality of lives for her neighbors in Des Moines.
Having lived in Ward 1, Indira is keen to the needs of her Des Moines community. Through her organizing, Indira advocates for sustainable solutions and providing resources for houseless community members; policies to restrict the gentrification of Northside neighborhoods; and to create municipal utilities for green energy and broadband.
As a result of last summer’s Black Lives Matter rallies, Sheumaker sees the need to reduce police powers and restructure the local public safety system. Part of that is a reallocation of some of the almost $75 million dollars that goes to the Des Moines Police Department, to address systemic racism and the harm it has wrought. Indira knows that these dollars can be better spent meeting the immediate needs of Des Moines residents through direct housing assistance, providing food support, and investing in community infrastructures like public transit.
Our Revolution is the national group founded in 2016 as an extension of the Bernie Sanders Presidential campaign. It has several hundred chapters across America and a half dozen in Iowa. Its members are committed to put the policies of Sanders into practice by electing candidates dedicated to those goals on the state and local level. Look at www.ourrevolution.com and Our Revolution Iowa’s Facebook page for more information.
Our Revolution Iowa is a collection of local Our Revolution chapters and other groups promoting progressive policies across Iowa. The group intends to endorse and promote candidates in the November 2021 municipal and school board elections across Iowa, as well as the Senate, U.S. House, and state elections in 2022.
Nationally, Our Revolution has endorsed all the members of The Squad, as well as Cori Bush and Jamaal Bowman in 2020. In 2020 nearly 70% of Our Revolution endorsed candidates won their races. Local chapters have endorsed Iowa candidates such as Cathy Glasson for Governor, J.D. Scholten for U.S. House, Christopher Schwartz for Black Hawk County Supervisor, and most recently, Jon Green for Johnson County Supervisor.
LINKS: www.ourrevolution.com